Last Wednesday, May 8, I had the privilege to attend the U.S. launch of Global Youth Traffic Safety Month, organized by the National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS). An inspirational day it was, on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial (with weather that threatened but at the last minute cooperated): remarks from US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, NHTSA Administrator David Strickland, Dr. Tom Frieden of the Center for Disease Control, Chairman Debra Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board, and former Secretary of Transportation (and current President of the Road Safety Foundation) Norman Mineta. Each speaker put the more than 34,000 annual deaths on American roads in the context of the 1.2 million lives that are lost around the world each year in traffic crashes. Each speaker emphasized the preventability of crashes and the incalculable loss of life, but noted that twenty years ago, the cause of getting the American public to wear seat belts seemed like a daunting and uphill battle, but we have made great strides there and we can do the same with crashes, injuries, and fatalities. Their remarks were overhung by an air of urgency, based on the fact, announced two days before the event, that traffic fatalities in the U.S. rose in 2012 over 2011 after several years of decline.
After the Jefferson Memorial event, about two hundred of us participated in a Long Short Walk, which I have written about in recent posts. Recall that the Long Short Walk originated with the family on Nelson Mandela, whose great granddaughter Zenani , a pedestrian, was killed in a crash in South Africa in 2010. At the event and on the walk we were joined by Kweku Mandela, Nelson’s grandson and Zenani’s cousin.
Below are photos of me with Secretary Mineta and with Kweku Mandela. It was an honor to meet them and to be inspired by their efforts to make our roads safer throughout the world.
